The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said yesterday that while it shared the widespread horror and revulsion at the Omagh bombing, it was "strongly opposed" to proposals to introduce internment without trial. "Internment without trial means jailing people without evidence", said the ICCL co-chairman, Mr Michael Farrell. "It is the negation of the rule of law and would inevitably mean that innocent people would be put in prison.
"It would totally undermine the human rights commitments given by the two governments in the Good Friday agreement and would be in breach of our international human rights obligations."
The ICCL said it believed that internment was wrong in principle and in practice. The rule of law was what distinguished democracy from barbarism. Democracy should not defend itself by abandoning one of its key components.